Friends Incubator for Public Ministry
July 27, 2025 § 1 Comment
I’m spreading the word here of a new Quaker ministry: Friends Incubator for Public Ministry. Here’s how it describes itself: It is “a bold, Spirit-led initiative to reweave the fabric of public ministry in the Religious Society of Friends.” And: “The Friends Incubator for Public Ministry empowers emerging Quaker leaders and their communities through spiritual formation, education, and collaboration, revitalizing public ministry to create a vibrant, modern Quakerism for today’s world.” Windy Cooler is the Incubator’s convener.
The Incubator website features a great blog, the Incubator sponsors events, and it is sponsoring a Fellowship for Public Ministry, which they describe as follows:
Our inaugural cohort learning experience is designed for those called to public ministry, their elders, and their worshipping communities. From April 6–12, 20026, we’ll gather at Pendle Hill for an in-person retreat to begin this journey together. Five participating meetings will explore how to faithfully discern, support, and hold public ministry accountable within their unique community contexts. This retreat marks the beginning of a two-year transformational process tailored to the needs and gifts of each meeting and minister involved.
The deadline for applying for the fellowship is September 1.
I am very impressed by Windy and by the Incubator—what it’s doing and the Spirit in which it’s doing it. I feel called to a ministry myself that is completely congruent with its mission: fostering the recovery and innovation of our traditions of ministry and especially, helping our meetings embrace this tradition.
I am right now in the middle of an exciting spiritual exercise in this area: I have a travel minute focused on fostering the gathered meeting originally written by Central Philadelphia Meeting and a support group nominally under its care. But I’ve transferred my membership to Princeton Meeting and now the two meetings, the support group, and I are working out how this transfer should take place, since our Faith and Practice isn’t clear or thorough on this matter.
In future posts, I will talk more about this process, which has been very enlivening.
Through the Flaming Sword 
[…] of the things I like about the Friends Incubator for Public Ministry, which I posted about on July 27, is its focus on the relationship between the minister and her or his meeting. In […]